MOUNDS IN WINNEBAGO COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 335 



MOUNDS IN WINNEBAGO COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 



By Thomas Armstrong, of Ripon, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. 



There are many "ancient aboriginal structures" in this section ; mounds 

 of various shapes, and designed for various uses, being very plentiful. 



The only other indications of the occupation of this region by the 

 aborigines are stone axes, arrow and spear heads, chips of flint, and 

 pieces of broken pottery, which may be found in almost any newly- 

 plowed held, or in gullies washed by the rains. 



The mounds which are especially to be noticed in this communication 

 are in the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 34, town- 

 ship of Nepeuskun, Winnebago County, Wisconsin, on the property of 

 a Mr. Hintz. 



They are situated about ten rods from the shore of Rush Lake, CO 

 feet back from the edge of a steep bank, which undoubtedly at one time 

 formed the shore of the lake, whose waters have now receded, and are 

 every year becoming more and more shallow, and giving place to marsh. 



The mounds were originally covered with a heavy growth of oaks, 

 which have been cleared off within the last ten years, and the land cul- 

 tivated. Some stumps of trees of from 100 to 150 years' growth re- 

 mained on them until this last summer. 



The mounds are in a group, of which No. 1 is isolated, and Nos. 2, 3, 

 and 4 are in a line, the nearest about 200 feet from No. 1. 



Nos. 1 and 4 are about 15 feet in diameter, and 2£ feet high ; No. 2. 

 56 by 42 feet, and 3.} feet high ; No. 3. 30 by 40 feet, and 3< feet high; 

 Nos. 2 and 3 are 75 feet apart. A quadrilateral ridge, indistinct in some 

 places, but quite prominent enough to be easily recognized, and having 

 on it several small mounds at irregular intervals, passes through Nos. 1 

 and 2. The mounds 2, 3, and 4 are the only ones which are very dis- 

 tinct and striking. 



The shape of all was once circular, or nearly so, but it has since been 

 changed to oval by long cultivation. 



All except No. 2 are composed of the same sort of material as the 

 ordinary surface soil of the surrounding fields, and these fields were 

 undoubtedly the source whence it was derived. 



No ditches or hollows from which such a quantity of earth could have 

 been taken are now to be seen in the vicinity, and it must therefore have 

 been scraped uniformly from the surface. 



No. 2, however, is of different material, having in its center a, stone 

 heap covered with the same sort of earth as the others. This is the 

 largest mound on IJush Lake, and peculiar in this regard, for in most 

 of the other mounds not even a pebble could be found, and in none were 

 there rocks of any great size; but here was a conical pile of bowlders, 

 such as the farmer to-day hauls off Ins fields, built in tin; exact center 

 of the mound, and reachiug to within a few inches of the surface. We 



